The Second Maurauders
by icepelt26
Summary: Harry Potter's time has passed, but what is in store for the next generation of young wizards and witches? Explore the lives of 2 new Hogwarts students, Serenity Diamond and Dylan Mason, and their friends as they attempt to uncover a mystery involving a series of attacks. Not only must they solve the problem of the attacks, but they must handle life as a typical witch and wizard.
1. Chapter 1: Serenity

Serenity Diamond: Chapter 1

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_Hey! First fanfiction I've written AND posted. Plenty more to come, I think. I guess it depends on my mood. Anyways, before I get started, I'm just going to tell you that this story will be from two different point of views, with the point of view changing at each chapter. The events described in each chapter will pretty much be the same, just from the point of views of different people. I'll (try) to post 2 chapters at a time, which means one chapter for each point of view. If you don't understand what I mean by changing point of views, you'll understand once you read it._

_Another thing I want to point out is that I did not come up with all the characters; I only created one original character, which is Serenity. My friends created the other original characters I used in this, so I DO have permission to use them and am not stealing them. The characters who were created by J.K. Rowling are not mine, so I do not own them._

_Well, I guess I should go ahead and let you read this story, and I will most likely be doing these little intros at the beginning of most of my chapters. Please follow, favorite, and review of you like it. Even if you don't like it, go ahead and reply to tell me what I should fix, or you can give me suggestions on what I can do. Please excuse any spelling or grammer errors, as I read over my writing multiple times to try to prevent them, and I am deeply sorry if it sucks, but I hope you enjoy._

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I lied on my bed and stared at the ceiling. For someone lying calmly on the bed, I was actually very excited. Today was the day I would go to Hogwarts, a school for witchcraft and wizardry. I had been looking forward to this day all year.

I was under a lot of pressure. My entire family had magical blood in their veins, and they were all pure-bloods. Although they were pure-bloods, they never considered themselves better than anyone else. But they always did try their hardest.

I got up from my bed and began to get dressed. I saw a dark shadow emerge from the darkness in my room, with glaring green eyes that stared into your soul. I was used to this, as the shadow with the emerald eyes was my beloved cat, Shade. My parents had put a charm on him so that he could mentally communicate with people, but he couldn't hear your thoughts. You would just have to talk to him like normal.

I picked up the cat and set him on the dresser. He sat down in a comfortable position and looked at me do my hair. My wild, curly hair was hard to tame, but I eventually brushed out all the knots and fixed my hair into large, perfect twists.

"There," I began. "Do you think this is good enough for my trip to Hogwarts?"

Shade could obviously understand me, because he shook his head in response as a 'no' and made a fake yawn to show his loss of interest.

I frowned. "You little twit, I don't have time for this rubbish."

He gave me a stern look, but then stood up and jumped down to the ground. He was always like this, as he was always so easily annoyed and never understood the things I did. But no matter where I go, he was always with me. Even some places that usually don't allow pets let me bring him; my mum was quite persuasive.

I grabbed my bags that held all my things that I would need for school. I had my supplies in one bag, my clothes in the other. The only thing that wasn't in my bag was my new wand: sycamore and unicorn core, eleven and three-fourths inches, surprisingly swishy. I held that in my hand. I kept my acceptance letter in my pocket, and I remembered my excitement when I saw the name on it. _Serenity Diamond._ I nearly screamed with joy! I started pack right away after that. Of course I decided to bring Shade, and it seemed as if even he, of all the cats in the world, was excited to go to Hogwarts.

I came down the stairs with Shade brushing his short fur against my legs. My mum was fixing us breakfast as my father read the newspaper while drinking a cup of coffee. I sat down in front of my bacon, eggs, toast, and orange juice.

"Hurry up, my dear," said Mum to Father. "The sooner we finish, the sooner Serenity can get to Hogwarts."

My father nodded and finished up the last of his coffee, burning his tongue in the process. I scarfed down my food in a few minutes. Through a full mouth, I said, "Let's go, Mum."

After that, my parents both went outside for a few moments, and soon came back inside with two broomsticks. I smiled excitedly, while Shade shrunk back nervously with large eyes. He stared at the brooms with the thought of having to fly. I laughed as I started thinking of cats flying on brooms.

I grabbed one of my bags, which weren't much, and climbed on the broom behind my father. Shade was propped up onto the other broom with my mum and my other bag.

We flew above all the large area of land below, stuck in the clouds. My father taught me some tricks to broom riding, so I spread out my arms to feel the blowing air. I looked at my mother and Shade, who actually seemed to enjoy the ride.

After a few minutes, I pointed down at the ground and yelled, "Down there! Platform nine and three quarters! I see it: the Hogwarts Express!"

Suddenly we dipped down to point at the ground and began our long descend. At first it seemed as if you would crash into the ground, but both my mum and dad landed swiftly on the solid ground, in an empty area in the parking lot so no that muggles would spot us. I grabbed both my bags and Shade eagerly followed after me as I took a trolley, and pushed it towards the wall separating Platform 9 and 10. I ran through the barrier, which had special enchantments so that no one would notice you going through a wall, with my parents and Shade following closely behind. Once we made it through, my parents walked me closer to the train before having to go. I waved good-bye to my parents before they flew off on their broomsticks. Shade waved to them with his long and thin tail.

I ran off to through the crowd, and I stared at one of the signs to make sure I wasn't dreaming. As I stood there, I heard Shade yowl and I was knocked over, nearly hitting my face to the ground. I heard a girl mumble, "Sorry," as she walked away. I looked up and saw her face, though I don't think she noticed, and I realized she was with another boy who looked identical to her. They both had light brown hair and peach colored skin, with gray eyes and freckles. I assumed they were twins. The boy quickly glanced down at me, as if to say sorry for his sister, but no words escaped his mouth.

I stood up and brushed back some loose curls from my face, and I looked around for anything that I might have dropped, in exception to my wand which I still gripped tightly in my right hand.

I picked up both my bags and ran towards the door that led inside the Hogwarts Express. I smiled as I stepped inside, then I remembered Shade. I turned around to look for his black fur in the crowd, when I finally noticed he had come on before me and was heading for an empty seat. I followed after him, feeling like such a dope at forgetting my own cat, and having to have _him_ lead me on the train.

During the train ride, me and Shade played a few games together. Even for a magical pet, he was quite intelligent. We played card games, checkers, chess, and a short game of "I Spy Bingo." And he beat me at everything except one game of speed, one of my favorite card games.

We were in the middle of a round of checkers when two girls walked by. One of them I recognized as the girl that accidentally knocked me over, the other a stranger. The one I didn't know had small, black, wild curls, which tended to seem more frizzed or fluffed that larger curls like mine, dark tanned skin, and green eyes like a forest. I heard a bit of their conversation.

"-and your brother always seems to hang around you. Doesn't he have friends to sit with?"

The one with the twin brother replied, "Not really. He doesn't spend that much time with other boys, and he usually sticks around me."

I started thinking about how someone could really have no friends at all, when the girl that knocked me over came up to the compartment door, and said, "You!" in a muffled voice because of the door between us. She slid open the door before continuing "I'm so sorry about running into you; I was a bit distracted by the Hogwarts Express. I was just really excited."

I smiled. "No matter. I didn't break anything, so I'm fine. Come and sit?"

Both of the girls looked at each other, then they squeezed their way into mine and Shade's seat. Another cat jumped onto the table, then sat down in front of the second girl I did not know. This cat was white with ginger patches over his pelt. The cat knocked over a few checker pieces as it moved.

"Sorry," the girl said. She blushed. "This is my cat, Patches. I'm Sofia Parker."

The other girl picked up a few of the fallen checker pieces. "I'm Olivia Mason. I have a twin brother named Dylan."

"Serenity Diamond. Nice to meet you." The train hit a small bump in the tracks and slightly jumped up. My wand rolled over and I caught it just before it fell off the table.

Olivia had a smug smile on her face and lifted up a wand she was holding. "What wand do you have? Mine is beech wood, dragon core, thirteen inches, and slightly springy."

"I have a black walnut, unicorn core, twelve and one- fourths inches, unyielding. Ollivander is a genius, isn't he?" Sofia added.

I held up my wand higher for them to see. "This is a sycamore, unicorn core, eleven three-fourths inches, surprisingly swishy." Shade lifted his head in an annoyed expression and pointed his tail at the checkerboard. Then I remembered our game.

I moved one of my red pieces, since Shade's favorite color was black, and then sat back in my chair. Olivia and Sofia watched in shock as Shade moved one of his pieces in a way that he could jump over all my remaining pieces without breaking any of the rules.

I crossed my arms and thought closely about what he did. Shade pulled back his lip in a snarl and I could tell he meant, _I knew you would move there. I planned it from the start, and I know what you're thinking, too._

I tried to find my voice, but I couldn't say a word. Finally, I managed to say, "You imbecile. I have an odd feeling that you cheated, though I know_ that's_ not true."

"How do you know?" asked Sofia.

I answered back to her, "Well, no matter what I say, he always has proof he didn't do anything. When I try to testify him for being a dodgy weasel, I always end up making a fool of myself." I tried to get my mind off of being beaten by a cat, and I began asking about Olivia and Sofia.

"So, do either of you have any siblings? Other than Dylan, that is."

Olivia turned to face me. "Nope, all I have is him."

"I have an older sister that is going to Hogwarts. Her name is Jamie," Sofia commented. "How about you?"

I sighed. "I'm an only child."

"Oh," Sofia replied. "Do you want a sibling?"

"Well, I've always been quite interested in twins, and I always wanted one."

Olivia said in a joking way, "Take Dylan. He's always been a snoop."

I laughed. "I meant an identical _female_ twin."

On the train ride, all three of us talked together about what Hogwarts would be like.

"My parents said they would put me up for adoption if Dylan and I didn't get in Slytherin," Olivia said.

"Mine said they would put me up for adoption if I _did_ get into Slytherin! They want me to be in Hufflepuff, but they're okay if I'm put in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw," Sofia commented.

I explained how my parents didn't care which house I was put in. They just wanted me to try my best in school.

A young boy that was identical to Olivia suddenly walked up to us, slamming the door open. He stared at Olivia with annoyance. "What took you so long? Where have you been? And, blimey, who is this?" He pointed at me with his finger.

Olivia rolled her eyes. "Does it really matter? You need to find some of your own friends." Dylan crossed is arms and his face blushed a deep red.

"Hey!" Sofia exclaimed. "_Blimey_ is my word!"

"Um, I'm Serenity Diamond," I said sheepishly. Dylan still didn't look happy, so I nervously added, "Pleased to meet you?"

"Good day," he angrily replied, trying to calm his anger. Then he walked away.

After a while we got hungry, so I got up to get some food. I asked what Sofia and Olivia wanted to eat, and they told me their favourite candies. Olivia chose a couple chocolate frogs, and Sofia simply asked for a few Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. I chose to order some cauldron cakes and a licorice wand, and we all wanted some pumpkin juice for a drink. I also decided to get a few sweets for Shade, and maybe a few for Patches, if Sophia allowed. Once I came back with the food, we neatly ate and continued chatting on about Hogwarts, as Shade finished up the last of his sweets.

We all soon began to fall asleep on the train, and we stayed that way for about an hour. As I closed my eyes, I felt Shade jump onto my lap and curl into a warm, black ball. I slowly closed my eyes, sneaking a peak outside the window at a faint and distant castle-like building, and a single thought occurred to me. _Hogwarts, the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._


	2. Chapter 1: Dylan

Dylan Mason: Chapter 1

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_So, this is what I meant by 2 point of views. Serenity will be one of them, and Dylan will be the other. I already did a small intro on the very first chapter, so you can read that if you want a little explanation about how this story will be written. Now, I'll try to continue this story to the end, and I'm trying to make the chapters pretty long so you have more to read. Sorry if it takes a while to update, but you have to remember that I, one person who still has to deal with school and LIFE in general, has to write 2 chapters explaining a story from the point of view of both a boy AND a girl (p.s. I'm a GIRL), spell check and correct any errors, and make sure that the chapters are posted correctly. Not to mention that my goal is to have at least 800 words in each chapter... Remember to follow, favorite, and review! And tell your friends! Right? No? Okay then... You can go ahead and start reading..._

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I was sleeping when my sister shook me awake.

"Dylan! Wake up! We're going to Hogwarts today!" Olivia said. I opened my eyes wide open, and pushed her off of me.

"I'm awake, I'm awake!" I said aggravatingly, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. I frowned at her, giving her a cold stare. She ignored me.

Olivia looked at me as she grabbed a hairbrush. "We need to wake up early so we have time to do our hair!"

"What? I'm a boy; I don't 'do my hair'!" I yelled, using finger quotes as I spoke.

Olivia blushed before saying, "Well, I'm a girl, and I _do_ do my hair."

I grabbed some clothes and ran to the bathroom before Olivia could use it. I locked the door, leaned against the wall, and slid down to the ground. _Sisters_, I thought. I quickly remembered that today we were going to Hogwarts, a school for wizards and witches, and began to get ready. I looked through my cabinet of stuff to find a brush, but instead I found some contraption of Olivia's. I was a shiny black, rounded rectangular tool, where a cylinder connected two more pieces of metal together. I cord hung off the end with the sideways cylinder, with a plug on the end of it. I plugged it into the wall, curious to see what it did.

Once about five minutes passed, I took the tool and messed around with it. The two extra unconnected rectangular prisms could clamp together if I wanted to. I touched part of the metal plate on one of the prisms, which was on the side where the two pieces connected, and pain shot up my hand. I dropped the tool and grabbed my hand as I screamed. I don't know why, since it didn't hurt as much as some other things I've been through, but it was the shock to feel the heat that probably made me scream. Olivia ran to the other side of the locked door and spoke to me through it.

"What happened?" she asked, her voice muffled.

"I touched part of one of your tool thingies and burned my hand!" I turned on the cold water, let my skin cool down, relieving the pain.

Olivia yelled at me, "That's a hair straightener! You're not supposed to touch it; you clamp your hair in between it and it makes your hair straight!"

"Well how was I supposed to know that?!" I finished getting ready, making sure to unplug the straightener and put it onto Olivia's side of the bathroom. The two sinks in there were separated by a strip of tape, but Olivia never paid any attention to the border. Her stuff was piled with different hair ties, bobby pins, head bands, scrunchies, and other things like the straightener, except it was used to curl hair. When I left the bathroom, I let Olivia take it, and went downstairs for breakfast.

My mum gave me a plate of food, and I scarfed it all down. She gave my a glass of a scarlet red liquid to drink, and I perked up at the sight of it. I grabbed the cup and took a sip, tasting the delicious, metallic flavor of it, as bitter as it was. My mum then handed me another cup, this one with a solid color and a lid, to take with me on the train. It was filled with extra blood, so that I could use it for a drink. And just if you're wondering, yes, I'm a vampire.

Personally, it was all Olivia's fault. I wasn't born a vampire, I was bitten. My sister dragged me into the woods, then abandoned me in the grip of a deadly vampire. I still have nightmares.

Olivia came downstairs and into the kitchen. She sat down at her seat, the grabbed the cup in front of her, which happened to be my other cup. I was about to say something when my mum told her, "Uh, dear, that's Dylan's _special_ cup." Olivia dropped it immediately.

My father came in, and greeted my sister in a nice tone. He turned to me, and said, "Hmm, Dylan," in a cold voice. I never understood why he didn't like me. But he always loved Olivia. He reminded me of those evil, heartless mother and fathers from books, movies, and shows, except he wasn't evil. At least, I don't think so, but he could be.

We went out to the car to drive to King's Cross Station. Olivia always complained about how even though we came from a wealthy family, we never seemed to use any other transportation than a flying car. I didn't care, since no one really paid me any attention anyway. I wasn't that popular around other people.

After a while of flying in the car, with our luggage in the trunk that was charmed to hold as much stuff as we needed, I began to grow tiresome. "Are we there yet?" I asked, sounding like a young child.

Olivia rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Do you see a train station?"

"No, but how much longer until we get there?" Olivia fell silent, since even she didn't know.

I finally spotted the station, and we flew down to the parking lot unnoticed. I grabbed two trolleys for me and Olivia, and we loaded our things onto them (Olivia also had a pet owl named Eri, whose cage was set on top of her luggage). We pushed them until we reached the barrier that led to platform nine and three quarters. Olivia looked like she was about to explode with excitement. I just walked through like it was normal for people to be walking through walls.

Until I reached the other side, I didn't realize how crowded it was. I nearly ran into someone with my trolley, and Olivia ran right into me from the other side of the wall. "Hey!" I yelled, feeling the metal slam into my body. I pushed it a little away from me using my super strength, one of the benefits of being a vampire. I also had super speed, super hearing, and I can read people's minds, and even speak into them or manipulate them. Not so sure about the eternal life part, since I aged like any other person.

Olivia ran ahead into the crowd, trying to run straight towards the train. Our parents came after me, I ran after Olivia, and Olivia ran after the unmoving train. Suddenly, Olivia ran into another girl, knocking her to the ground.

"Sorry," Olivia muttered, more occupied with the Hogwarts Express. I went with Olivia, looking down on the girl she had knocked over. I saw a quick glimpse of her face, since she seemed to be examining us, probably thinking that we were identical twins. The girl was beautiful, with perfect features and a graceful stature. Her super (SUPER) long hair fell to the ground in a tumble of large, tight ringlets. I almost regretted looking away without even saying a word. I felt even worse that I didn't help her. And trust me when I say, I NEVER feel bad about anything. Especially if it wasn't my fault.

Once we reached the train, we exchanged a few hugs with our parents (well, except for me and my dad) and climbed aboard. We found an empty compartment and put up our stuff. We sat down across from each other and said nothing.

After a few minutes, another girl came in. "Can I sit with you two? I can't find an empty place to sit." I wanted to tell her to leave, but Olivia let the girl in. She had dark green eyes, and lightly tanned skin. She had small, super curly black hair that was in a considerably clean mess on her head. Not sure if that sentence works, but okay. The girl was pretty, but by my standards, I would have preferred that the girl Olivia ran into had come to sit with us.

When Olivia and that girl started talking, I learned that her name was Sofia Parker. She had a white and ginger colored male cat named Patches. She came from a half-blood family, meaning she was half magical, half muggle. She looked a little uncomfortable when Olivia mentioned that we were pure-bloods, but she calmed down when she said that our family wasn't like other pure-blood families. After a while, Olivia, Sofia, and Patches got up and left, saying they were going to try to find the candy cart for some food. I waited, and waited, and waited, but after a long time, they didn't come back. So I went off looking for them.

I started from the back of the train, looking through each window of every compartment I passed. When I saw the familiar look of a girl with light brown hair and freckles, sitting down and chatting, I ripped the door open. I nearly died of embarrassment when I saw who was in it.

There was, of course, Olivia and Sofia. But then there was the girl Olivia had run into on our way to the train. She looked just as nice as before, her glittering eyes staring at me in shock. I took a better look at her this time. She had perfectly curled hair, icy blue eyes, and tanned skin. She had a straight nose, high cheekbones, and full lips, with a bit of pink lip gloss.

"What took you so long? Where have you been? And, blimey, who is this?" I yelled irritatedly at Olivia, trying to make it look like I wasn't staring at her apparent new friend.

Olivia replied, "Does it really matter? You need to find some of your own friends." I crossed my arms, and I felt heat rise to my face as I began to blush. Suddenly Sofia said, "Hey! _Blimey_ is my word!"

_It's everybody's word_, I though to myself, but I was already too preoccupied with the current situation. The other girl sat uncomfortably between Olivia and the window, obviously nervous to say much.

"Um, I'm Serenity Diamond," said the girl. Her name matched her peaceful nature. "Pleased to meet you?"

I tried to think of something to say, but all I said was, "Good day," before walking away. I went back to my compartment, which still had Sofia and Olivia's stuff, and sat alone. At one point, I went to see if Olivia was done talking yet, only to find all three of the girls asleep. Funny how none of them snored, but you could hear Olivia and Sofia's soft breathing. Serenity was strangely silent, the only sign that she was alive was that her chest slowly moved up and down. She smiled slightly, making it seem like even when she was asleep, she was happy. Then I went back to the compartment for the rest of the trip. The only other time I left was when I had to change clothes, and the train began to slow as we arrived at Hogwarts at last.


	3. Chapter 2: Serenity

Serenity Diamond: Chapter 2

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_Update! Yeah, that's pretty much all I have to say... Had an ice storm last week. Not fun. Where I live, we don't get stuff like that a lot. So anyway, I'll most likely continue this story (if I don't become too lazy). In the meantime, please follow, favorite, and review. Or don't. Whatever you like._

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I was shaken by a strange force that gripped me. I blinked open my eyes, and I saw Sofia shaking me to wake up. Olivia seemed startled from the awakening, but that annoyance was soon replaced by excitement.

"Blimey! We're almost at Hogwarts and we forgot to change into our robes!" Sofia yelled.

Olivia's eyes popped open. "Well let's hurry up then!"

"Make sure you tell Dylan to change, too," I reminded.

Olivia rolled her eyes playfully. "I will, I will."

I grabbed my robes from my bag and told Shade to watch our things. Then I went to change. Right when the train stopped, all three of us finished changing. We left the rest of our belongings on the train and rushed out the door, Patches and Shade following quickly behind. We stopped outside, staring wondrously at the large building in front of us.

Sofia was the first to speak. "I can't believe it! We're at Hogwarts! Well, almost, that is."

"I know! I can't wait until we arrive there, but we still need to make it through the boat ride!" Olivia exclaimed.

We spotted an empty boat to ride and climbed in. Shade and Patches jumped in after us. The gamekeeper, known as Hagrid, came in at the front of the boat. Once it seemed like all the first-years were in the boat, we started to move through the water, without any paddles. It was simply powered by magic. Hagrid began to explain life at Hogwarts, and soon we passed under a large bridge or tunnel, a sign that we were almost at Hogwarts. My excitement grew as we came nearer and nearer to the castle. Finally, we stopped on the land beneath us, and we all got out of the boat.

When I stepped onto the ground, I just stood staring. Shade looked up at the building, considering how much bigger it appeared to him and other cats than us. Then he leaped forward and ran towards the entrance. Patches trailed not that far behind him.

I picked up my wand, and checked my pocket to make sure my letter was still there. It was. Then I ran after Shade, and Sofia and Olivia ran after me.

"Wait; Shade, stop!" I called. Shade then froze, and turned to face me. He stared into my eyes with an impatient look. _Hurry up. I want to go inside before anyone else of your kind. They take up so much space, and make me feel enclosed._

I felt slightly insulted by his comment, but I set it aside. Nothing could ruin this moment. I was at Hogwarts. Sofia, Olivia, and I all went inside with Shade and Patches. Hundreds more students were in the room. We stared at all the people surrounding us. We were about to go introduce ourselves when someone called us all over to the sorting hat. Though I was excited to see which house I would get, both Sofia and Olivia seemed nervous. Probably because of their parents' threats to put them up for adoption.

We all lined up in alphabetical order. Sofia and Olivia seemed quite relieved when they remembered my last name started with a D. That meant I would be one of the first to receive their house. I was trembling with excitement in my spot near the front of the line. The sorting hat sang a song before starting to sort the students.

After a few students received their houses, it was my turn to wear the sorting hat. I walked up to the stool, as someone set the hat on my head, the brim of it falling over my eyes. I could hear the soft singing from it, and about a minute went by before the hat said aloud his decision.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

I smiled. My mum had been placed in Hufflepuff, and my father in Ravenclaw. The hat was taken off my head as I jumped off the seat. I met with Shade and Patches on a different side of the room, sitting at a table for Hufflepuff students.

_Congratulations. You got put in Hufflepuff. Can we go to your room now?_

I gave him a stern look and blushed angrily. I stood up, put my hands on my hips and whispered, "We have to wait for Sofia and Olivia to finish. I'm not going just yet. Now sit, pussy."

He sat down angrily. _Nitwit._

I picked up a leaf I saw on the ground and stuck it between Shade's eyes, just above his nose. He struggled furiously trying to get it off.

I waited, and waited, until Olivia came over. I had become bored of watching all the strangers receive their houses so I simply tuned out what houses they received. When Olivia came up to me, she happily said, "Slytherin!" and ran away to the table of other Slytherin members. Sofia finished a little after her and told me she also received Hufflepuff.

"That's great!" I replied. "We'll get to share a room, and we'll already have the same common room!"

Sofia nodded. "Yes! Oh, isn't this so exciting?"

Then the final student was called. It was at that moment that we noticed there were golden plates in front of us. I looked at the plates, and Professor McGonagall stood up to say a few things. After she finished, I clapped, and turned back to the table. The plates were full of food, and it smelled delicious. We all piled up our own plates with several different foods, and ate until we were stuffed, which for me, didn't take much food. Every now and then, Shade and Patches would try to take some food, and sometimes even resorted to begging for a few pieces of chicken.

Then many different varieties of desserts came out. Suddenly no one was full. I chose a fluffy chocolate eclair, while Sofia settled for a nice cold (yes, cold) trifle.

Then the Professor said a few more words, and then we began singing the Hogwarts song.

Once everyone finished singing, we went to see our rooms. We followed the Hufflepuff prefect and found out how to get into the Hufflepuff common room, and entered our room behind the barrels on one of the bottom floors of the castle. I gasped in amazement at the room. There were decorations of yellow and black covering the walls. Many comfortable chairs and couches were around the blazing fireplace in the center of a wall to the back of the room. Long curtains covered the windows that went from a foot off the ground nearly to the ceiling. The Hufflepuff emblem was above the fireplace, the black and white badger in the center. To me, it was wonderful, and felt just like home.

We then separated into the girls Hufflepuff room and the boys Hufflepuff room. Sofia and I found our bags lying on top of our new beds, which were next to each other, and started to unpack. I took out my new uniform I had bought in Diagon Alley, and took out my wand case to put my wand inside.

Shade nudged me in the arm as I took out my things, and I pushed him away. He was determined to get my attention, so he began to lightly claw at my robe with sheathed claws. I turned, picked him up, and set him on the ground. Without me noticing, he walked a little farther away from my bed, the broke into a sprint towards me. He leaped into the air and hit me square in the face, knocking me to the ground. I felt a sharp pain where he gripped onto me, his claws digging into my skin. The side of my body that I landed on burned, and Sofia ran over to help me up.

I mumbled under my breath, trying my best not to curse. I sat up, and my fall attracted lots of wondering eyes from the other girls. Eventually they all turned around and went back to unpacking. My face hurt where Shade hit me, and I touched my right cheek. It felt partially wet, and I went to clean up the scratches left on my face. Sofia handed me a damp towel, and my cheek burned as I wiped off the blood. I heard another girl come up behind me to see if I was okay.

"Do you need me to get someone?" the girl asked. I didn't look up until I was sure my face was cleaned.

Finally, the scratches clotted, and I bent up my head to see the girl. She had straight, but slightly wavy, dirty blonde hair, and pale skin. She had chocolate brown eyes which I stared into as I replied, "No, I'm fine. But thank you."

She smiled as she and Sofia helped me to stand up. She held out her hand for us to shake. "My name is Hazel Cindara." Sofia and I introduced ourselves to her.

"Nice to meet you," Sofia said.

"Likewise." Hazel then went back to her bed, and Sofia and I continued to unpack.

Fortunately, none of my clothes seemed to have any blood stained on them, but I left to change since we were going to bed. I took off my clothes, a flowing white shirt, gray tunic, a short black skirt, white tights, and my knee-high converse boots. As a Hufflepuff, my mom had a yellow scarf with double black stripes on it. She handed it down to me since she thought I'd be in Hufflepuff, and it stayed wrapped around my neck. I took it off along with my robe, and went to sleep after I finished dressing into a comfortable pair of silk salmon pink pajamas.

The next morning Sofia, Hazel, and I all went to our classes together. I went to the hospital wing the night before, and had the side of my face that Shade had damaged fixed. We met Olivia in the halls on the first day, and we found out that she had the same Potions, Flying, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Charms classes as us. We introduced Hazel to Olivia, and soon she became part of our great group of friends. We walked through several halls, trying to find our classes.

Most of the classes were quite boring. I expected it to be more exciting, since it _was_ a school for magic. But there was one class I was very enthusiastic for: flying. I couldn't wait for to get on a broom, and it was that very feeling that kept me from falling asleep during my other classes.

Finally, we came to our last class of the day with Madam Hooch. I was very excited, and I always secretly had a love for Quidditch. But I favored one spot on the team in particular: Seeker. I had my own Firebolt at home that I rode, and my parents taught me many tricks and tips for riding. Both of them had been on the Quidditch team; my father was a Beater, my mother a Chaser. I could dodge any Bludgers that came my way. I was light enough to pull up my broom at less than a foot from the ground. I was able to find the Snitch in less than five minutes in the dark. All of this training was for this moment. All of my family enjoyed Quidditch, including me. I just hoped to do well enough so that Professor McGonagall would let me try out.

We began to walk to class, and headed out and into the field where we would practice our flying.

I noticed Olivia kept swinging her head back and forth, as if she were looking for someone. "Who are you looking for?" I asked anxiously.

"Oh, just Dylan. I wanted to make sure he's alright," she replied.

I heard Sofia let out a loud sigh. "Olivia, you can't always be looking out for Dylan, you know. You need to let him do some things on his own; I'm sure he'll make his own friends."

"Yeah, I know. It's just that he's my brother."

Hazel then spoke. "So, are you guys excited to get on brooms?"

I wasn't that good at expressing my emotions all the time, so I just shrugged. I heard Olivia and Sofia both yell, "YES!" in excited tones. _Why didn't I do that?_

Right before I opened my mouth to say I did like Quidditch, Sofia said, "I'm hoping I'll make the Hufflepuff Quidditch team as Seeker!" At that moment, my spirit dropped. I shut my mouth and kept silent, in an attempt to not deprive Sofia of her dream.

"I want to Beater," Hazel replied.

Olivia added, "I want to be a Beater, too! Except I want to play for Slytherin."

Sofia turned to face me. "What about you Serenity?"

I thought for a brief moment, and decided to keep my love for Quidditch a secret. "I'm not really interested in Quidditch," I lied. Hazel, Sofia, and Olivia all gasped with a shocked expression.

We arrived at the practice field, and Madam Hooch took out the brooms. She showed us how to correctly ride the broomsticks, and told us how to get the broom to come up into our hand. She told us to hold our right hand over the broom, yell, "UP!" and the broom would fly up into our hand. She let us try a few times to give us more practice. I had been riding all my life, so when I yelled, my broom flew into my hand with and immense amount of power, but not enough to knock me off my feet.

After a few minutes of practicing, Madam Hooch began to tell us a few more instructions for flying then let us hover above the ground. This was easy for me, since I already knew how to fly. I waited impatiently to fly higher on my broom, but since the others didn't know that I was interested in Quidditch, I couldn't. I noticed Olivia and Dylan smile at each other. The mischievous grin on their face told me they were up to something. I just shook my head at them.

Once I turned around, I heard Dylan shout, "Hey, Olivia, wait for me!" I turned to his voiced and saw him kick off the ground and into to air on his broom to join Sofia, Hazel, and his sister in the air. I was about to fly up after them, but I didn't want to get in trouble, and that would also reveal that I was an expert at riding a broom.

Sofia rode around yelling the occasional "WOOHOO!" and she looked so free and happy, along with the others.

Madam Hooch stared up at them. She told them to come back down at the end of class.

All four of them flew down gently, when something fell out of Dylan's pocket. Something long. Something magical. And that something was none other than: _a wand_. Sofia saw it drop down, and swiftly dove down to catch it in her hand. I noticed Madam Hooch staring at her with wide eyes.

"That was an amazing dive, Sofia!" she exclaimed. The remaining pieces of my heart that hadn't been crushed by Sofia's dream to be a Seeker were crushed by what Madam Hooch said next. "Good enough to be a Seeker!"

Madam Hooch looked at the others. "And you three would make amazing beaters!" she said. She looked at Olivia and Dylan. "Especially you 2. are you brother and sister?" Both of them nodded. Madam Hooch replied, "Good. Come with me to Professor McGonagall's office and we'll see if I can get you each a place on your Houses' Quidditch teams."

I didn't want to be rude, so as they left, I whispered to Sofia, "Good luck!" But inside, my heart ached. It had just been destroyed, along with my dreams and spirit.

After our classes, I waited for Sofia and Hazel to return. When they walked into the room, I asked, "So how did it go?"

Both Sofia and Hazel exclaimed, "We get to try out for the team!"

I smiled, but it was a fake one without any joy or happiness. "Congrats." It turned out to sound ruder than I meant it to be.

I fell into my bed that night. Shade jumped onto the bed next to me and climbed onto my lap. In the dark room, he looked like an illusion. He seemed to have a soft glow, caused by the candle that was lit behind him. He was truly a beautiful cat.

_Did you get permission to try out for the team?_ he asked. I shook my head.

Shade snarled, more ferociously than I ever heard from him. _How dare they? Only an idiot would not recognize your talent! I will claw out Sofia's eyes, for taking your place on the team. I with rip her cat to shreds!_

I explained to him what happened. Instead of being mad at Madam Hooch and Professor McGonagall, he began to be mad at me. He ranted on and on about how I should have just told the truth. Eventually, I set him down on the ground and pulled the covers over my head.

That night, I tossed and turned in my bed, holding back the tears that hadn't already leaked out of my eyes and streamed down my face. I held a piece of paper, with a picture of me that I drew holding the Quidditch Championship Trophy in my right hand, and a broom in the other. I tried to forget, but Madam Hooch's words kept repeating in my head, as if it was on a loop, constantly playing over and over, without an end. _"__Good enough to be a Seeker!" _Those words haunted me for the rest of the night.

In the middle of the night, after I stopped crying, I heard someone calling me. "Serenity, are you still awake?"

"Yes, I couldn't sleep."

"Why not? What's wrong?"

I quickly thought up something to say. "Nothing, I just couldn't sleep for some reason, that's all."

"Oh, okay."

After that it was silent, and I finally got some rest. But my rest was not _good_ rest. I dreamed of my dreams being crushed to a pulp.


	4. Chapter 2: Dylan

Dylan Mason: Chapter 2

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_Bleh... No intro. Check the last chapter for that. Not that there's much to look at... Remember to follow, favorite, and review if you enjoy this story! I'm gonna say this every time! Oh, and just a note, this chapter is a little short compared to the others, but hey, it's still over a thousand words._

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I went to go check on my sister, Sofia, and Serenity when I ran into Olivia, telling me to change. Then when she saw I was already dressed in my robes, she fell silent and ran back to her compartment. It didn't matter that her and Sofia's things were still in my compartment, since we were all told to leave them on the train. They would be sent to our new rooms.

I couldn't find Olivia, so I was forced to ride across the lake with a few strangers. I ended up in a boat with three other girls, which I probably would have had happen if I went with Olivia anyway. The girls kept staring at me and giggling, whispering to each other in excited tones as I stared at the Black Lake.

We rode under a large bridge, temporarily in darkness, as we came closer to the castle that was our new school and home for the next year. When we reached the shore, we all ran to the entrance, waiting to be sorted. Right when I squeezed myself into the room, which was quite large even though there were hundreds of students in there, we were all called to go to the Sorting. We went into the Dining Hall and all of us first-years lined up by last name. I finally found Olivia when she stood right behind me in the line.

I looked around the other people to see the sorting hat. It was a ragged, old, pointed hat with a wide rip in the front. I was shocked when the hat began to sing, using the rip as a mouth. When it was done, we began the Sorting. I listened to the first few people's houses, but I soon grew tired and tuned out anyone else. I heard the hat say that Serenity had been sorted into Hufflepuff, and since she was my sister's friend, I knew she would be around a lot, along with Sofia.

When they called my name, I walked up to the stool and the hat was placed on my head. It was actually really big, and covered my eyes when it was put on. While the hat thought about which house to put me in, I was plunged into complete darkness, listening to the hat's humming. Finally, the hat yelled, "SLYTHERIN!" and I took off the hat, stood up, and went to sit with the other Slytherins. Unlike Olivia, I wasn't exactly what you would call nice, so I had no worries about not getting sorted into Slytherin. Both of our parents were in that house, and they threatened to put me and Olivia up for adoption if we weren't sorted into it. And it didn't seem like they were joking, especially my father.

Olivia had been sorted into Slytherin, too, and came over to join me right after she went to tell Serenity at the Hufflepuff table, who hadn't been listening to the others, but had been messing around with her black cat. Sofia was also sorted into Hufflepuff.

When everyone was sorted, we all ate dinner. Food appeared on the golden plates and dishes, served hot and cold, depending on the food. Liquid suddenly filled our glasses, and when I looked in my cup to see what was inside, all I saw was pumpkin juice. I was a bit let down, since I usually expected a dark red drink. I didn't know if I could last an entire year with this. I complained to Olivia, but she replied in a low tone, "No one knows what you are. Plus, mom promised to send you a week's worth of blood every week."

After the main course of dinner, we all ate dessert. I grabbed nearly everything I could find that seemed to look good, and piled it onto my plate. It was all just as delicious as it looked. Once we all finished our feast, Headmistress McGonagall said a short speech about making new friends and learning new skills before we sang our school song. We all went to our common rooms afterward.

Olivia and I followed the prefect of our house, and we stopped when we reached a solid stone wall near the dungeons of the school. The prefect told us all the password, and we went inside when the stone bricks magically slid apart, creating an entrance into the common room.

I gasped as I went inside. The room was covered in green and silver decorations, with dark chairs and couches, and a bright fireplace with a burning fire, the flames dancing in the dark. The Slytherin symbol was up above the fireplace mantle, the winding snake appearing to be glowing in the strange light. To me, it looked quite nice, and actually pretty cool.

Olivia and I went to our seperate dorms, since, of course, we were different genders. Olivia went with the girls while I left with the other boys. When we reached the dorm, I found my things already stacked neatly onto my new bed. I looked at the boys around me, and saw that my bed was right next to Scorpius Malfoy's, son of Draco and Astoria Malfoy. He looked like his father, who had silver-blonde hair and gray eyes. He had pale skin and pointed features. He was mainly the only person I recognized as I unpacked, even though I don't actually know him personally.

As I looked around, I realized that I wouldn't share a room with Olivia until summer, which meant I had the chance to sleep as long as I wanted, and I wouldn't have her yelling at me to wake up so I can 'do my hair'. Well, as long as I'm not late for class. I was happy that Olivia couldn't come in here since it was the _boys'_ dorm room, but I was proven wrong the next morning.

"Wake up!" Olivia yelled into my ear, startling me. She surprised me pretty well, because I rolled off my bed and fell on the floor, tangled in my covers.

I was so mad I thought I would explode. "Olivia! This is for boys only! And I'm not even properly dressed!" It was true. I wasn't exactly _dressed_. All I was wearing was my boxers. I didn't think I'd have any issues since all the other people in the room were boys, and I definitely didn't expect my sister to wake me up.

I quickly rummaged through my drawers, trying to find my uniform. I had a blanket wrapped around me, and I took it with me as I went to change in the bathroom. When it was time for our classes, I followed Olivia, since we had our classes together and because she was the only one of us who actually made any friends. When we met Sofia and Serenity in the hall, it seemed like they brought along an extra girl. Her name was Hazel Cindara, and she had dirty blond hair, brown eyes, and light skin. She was really pretty, but not quite as pretty in my opinion.

I ended up following Olivia for all of our classes, sticking to her but not trying to join in the conversations she had with her other friends. Especially Sofia. They were so alike, it was hard not to believe they were twins rather than me and Olivia. Whenever I tried to ask Olivia something, she'd turn away in favor of Sofia. It made me feel quite dejected.

The only time I felt truly happy that day was when we had our flying class. Unfortunately for me, we had flying class with the Hufflepuffs, which meant Sofia was there, too. I was so tired of her, I just left their group in the hall and came down to the field by myself. I saw Olivia looking for me, but she didn't notice where I was until a while later, in the middle of class.

As our teacher, Madame Hooch was instructing us, I cast a glance at Olivia. After we went over the simple instructions of flying, we were all allowed to try. Olivia and I both smiled smugly, and we both knew what we were thinking. Olivia hopped onto her broom and flew into the air before I knew we were going through with our plan already.

"Hey," I began, "Olivia, wait for me!" I flipped onto my broom and flew up after Olivia. We both were experienced fliers, and we always wanted to Beaters for our house Quidditch team. Sofia and Hazel had flown up, too. We were all flying around in the sky until we were told to come down at the end of class.

As I landed on the ground, my wand slipped out of my pocket. Just as it fell, Sofia dipped down and caught it. When she handed it back, I snatched it out of her hand, debating whether to have it sterilized or burned. I ended up sticking it back into my pocket, promising myself to clean it really well later.

I turned around to see Madame Hooch staring at Sofia. "That was an amazing dive, Sofia! Good enough to be a Seeker!" Then she looked at me, Hazel, and Olivia. "And your three would make amazing Beaters! Especially you two," she said, directing her voice towards me and Olivia. "Are you brother and sister?" I shook my head as a 'yes'. Olivia did the same.

"Good. Come with me to Professor McGonagall's office and we'll see if I can get you each a place on your Houses' Quidditch teams," Madame Hooch said. All four of us followed her back into the castle, taking us to Professor McGonagall. I heard Serenity whisper, "Good Luck," to Sofia as we walked away.

We were all led through the long hallways of the school, twisting and turning until we reached the Headmistress's office. We stopped when we reached a statue of a gargoyle. Madame Hooch whispered the password, careful to make sure none of us heard it, and the gargoyle stepped out of the way. Behind it was a hidden staircase that led to the office. All of us climbed up the steps, one by one, slowly making progress to the top.

When we reached the end, we entered a large, circular room. On the walls we portraits of all the former headmasters and headmistresses. The headmasters and headmistresses in the portraits moved around in their frames, waving to us as we passed.

Madame Hooch came up to Professor McGonagall, who was sitting at her desk doing paperwork. She didn't seem to notice us. She looked up when she heard Madame Hooch standing at her desk, and asked why we were here. Madame Hooch explained how we showed great promise as Quidditch players, and asked if we could try out for our house teams.

"Well," said the Headmistress, "I don't see why not. They can try out for the team if they wish."

The girls around me quietly squealed with excitement, while I just stood there shrugging. I crossed my arms and took a step away from my sister and her friends, who began to talk about what they would do at the tryouts.

After that, we all left and went back to our common rooms. Olivia headed down to the Owlery to send a letter to our parents, asking if they could send up our brooms from home. We all went to the Dining Hall for dinner once we put up all our books, and headed back afterward. I crawled into my bed, hoping Olivia wouldn't jolt me awake for the entire year.


	5. Chapter 3: Serenity

Chapter 3

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_Okay, so I'm really confused with the new way has their site arranged, so I have no idea how to make stuff bold, italicized, or underlined. And I have no idea how to make the break lines anymore. I can only do this stuff if i go back to edit. -_- It's really frustrating._

_Remember to follow, favorite, and review!_

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The next day, during our Charms class, I noticed Sofia wasn't paying attention to what Flitwick was saying. I, on the other hand, was taking very detailed notes in my notebook and took every word he said and put it in the file cabinet of my mind.

Then Flitwick asked Sofia a question. "Sofia, what spell is used to levitate an item?"

Since Sofia wasn't listening, I whispered her the answer. "The answer is _wingaurdium leviosa_." She repeated me and Flitwick told her she was correct. Sofia gave me her thanks, and I replied, "No problem, friends always help each other."

In Charms, we began practicing our levitation spell.

We all worked with partners when we did the spell. Each pair got one feather to levitate, and they would help each other if they needed it. Sofia was placed with Hazel, and Olivia was with a girl named Satin Sans. She had light brown hair and blue-green eyes, a bit darker than mine, since I had light eyes like ice. I was paired with Dylan. I was afraid he might get mad at me all the time and not even try the spell, but once we were given our feather, he took it and raised his wand.

"_Wingardium leviosa!_" The feather sat still on the tabletop. Some of the other students sneered at him, and you could tell Dylan was getting mad.

I didn't want to make him any angrier, so I told him, "Don't listen to them. They probably make their feather go lower to the ground instead." I was surprised when Dylan actually smiled.

"When you say the spell, try flicking your wrist. The way you pronounced it was just right." He followed my instructions on his second attempt and his feather floated higher and higher above us until it was a foot away from the ceiling. Dylan looked quite pleased with himself, and some of the other students stood in awe.

I was waiting for Dylan to reply to me to say thank you, but it never came. His eyes were locked onto him floating feather. Finally, I lightly tapped his shoulder, and said, "Um, excuse me. But I believe a _thank you_ is in order?"

Dylan's feather began to drift back down to the table. When it stopped on the tabletop, he tore his eyes away from it and replied, "Fine, thank you."

"Much better!" Then I smiled at him and took the feather. I moved a little down towards the other end of the table. Once again, to my surprise, Dylan followed behind me. I guessed he wanted to see what my feather did. I recited the levitation spell and the feather floated up just as Dylan's had before. I was very happy, but I wasn't that surprised. I realized how proud Dylan must have felt when he was able to levitate his feather.

Soon after the Quidditch tryouts, I found out all four of my friends (including Dylan) made it on the team. I was happy for them, but I was also a little upset.

During the first Quidditch match, Sofia had seen and caught the Snitch before the other team had even sighted it. Although we won the match, some of the Gryffindors were making fun of our house.

The next few months were like a repeat of today. Finally, Halloween came. I had been waiting for this day ever since I came to Hogwarts. I was looking forward to the Halloween feast with my new friends.

When I woke up, I found some candy on the table next to my bed. There was a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, and I opened up the box. I took a bright green jelly bean and plopped it in my mouth, expecting the flavor of green apple, but it turned out to be vomit, and I spit it out right away. I found a strange gray bean and took a small lick. Yuck, mouse. I woke up Shade and gave it to him. He quite enjoyed it.

I searched through the box and found even more revolting flavors. Soap, grass, bogey, earwax, and so on. I was surprised there were so many disgusting flavors in one box.

I got dressed, and put the remaining beans in one of my pockets. I made my bed and put some of my candy away, then left for breakfast. On the way down, I ran into Dylan on the stairs. I was expecting him to yell at me, but instead he gave me a large box. I untied the ribbon, and found lots of pumpkin pasties inside. I was even more surprised than the time he smiled at me in Charms.

"Um, you didn't poison these or anything, did you?" I asked him suspiciously.

"NO!" he said defensively. "But to be honest, I was considering on doing that to Sofia. But anyway, Olivia made me get it for you as a thank you for helping me with my spells."

I took the box and it had Olivia's hand-writing on a small card. It read:

Sorry about Dylan. He can be a little hard to get along with at times. Hope this makes up for it! Happy Halloween!

"Non-magical candy?"

Dylan shrugged. "Would you rather we get you jelly slugs or cockroach clusters?"

"Point taken."

We silently continued down the stairs to the Dining Room then separated to our houses tables. I sat down next to Sofia and Hazel.

After she swallowed the food in her mouth, Sofia said, "Happy Halloween, Serenity."

"Happy Halloween."

Hazel eyed the box of pumpkin pasties. "Who are those from?"

"Dylan."

"Wait, _Dylan?_"

"Well, it's actually from Olivia and Dylan. Olivia made him get it for me since I helped him with some of his spells." I opened the box and took a piece of candy. "Pasty anyone?"

Sofia took the pasty and I gave Hazel another one. When we finished breakfast, we went to our classes.

In the classes, we did the same things we had been doing for the past few months. When it was finally time for the Halloween feast, I was very excited. There were lots of different foods and candy such as candy apples, lollipops, and other things.

First, I dug into the normal food. Then, as I ate a lollipop, something came up behind me and grabbed my shoulders. "BOO!" I screamed and the lollipop flew out of my hand, hitting another student in the head, sticking to their hair. I turned around and saw one of the ghosts behind me laughing.

"Who was that?" I asked, as I chose a new lollipop.

Hazel replied to my question. "That was Peeves. He's a poltergeist that likes to play pranks on the students."

We finished off our feast, and soon went to our common rooms. Sofia, Hazel, and I talked and exchanged candy with each other before we went to bed. I gave Shade some of my extra candy and fell asleep as he finished off the rest of it.

In November, we had our second Quidditch match, the second match of the year, which was against the Slytherin house. I was excited to see what would happen, and who would win.

Before they went onto the field, I wished them all good luck, including Dylan. I was beginning to think that we were friends. He didn't seem as annoyed by me as he did Sofia and Hazel. He hadn't even been mad at me ever since we met on the Hogwarts Express.

I took a seat along with the rest of the crowd. I waited impatiently for the match to begin. When the players finally mounted their brooms, I found myself cheering along with everyone else, screaming the names of the players.

It was a pretty average game. That was, until the end. Sofia had sighted the Snitch, and was racing towards it. The Slytherin Seeker had also seen the Snitch and was only a little behind Sofia. Right before Sofia could reach the Snitch, Dylan hit a Bludger at Sofia and she was knocked off her broom. At that instant, I ran down to the field and came up to Sofia.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah." More people began to crowd around Sofia, asking if she was hurt or not. Soon, Madam Hooch assured that Sofia was alright. I started to calm down and walked away from the crowd around her. The Slytherins in the rest of the crowd cheered.

Once the people around Sofia cleared out, she stomped towards Dylan with an angry look on her face. I followed after them, making sure to not make any noise. I hid behind a wall so they couldn't see me.

Sofia was the first to speak. "You know, you should at least say sorry!"

"Why would I do that?"

"Because you hit the Bludger so hard! I could've gotten seriously injured!"

"That was the point."

I was beginning to get the feeling that Sofia and Dylan weren't going to be friends anytime soon.

"Why would you do something like that?!"

"For revenge," Dylan replied.

"Revenge for what?!"

"For stealing my sister away from me!" I suddenly felt sorry for Dylan.

"I didn't steal your sister from you! She's still your sister! I'm just her friend! You need to let her have her own friends! Just because you are a freak with no friends doesn't mean she is like you. You're just a sad excuse, desperate for someone to like you, and your sister is the only one who will!"

I don't think Sofia noticed, but Dylan began to tear up. She tried to apologize, but he walked away and I heard him mutter a jinx spell. I felt bad about helping him perfect it.

As Dylan said the jinx, Olivia ran by and yelled a counter jinx to block his spell. Then she ran towards Dylan and began shouting angrily at him. He blinked quickly to hold back his tears.

After Olivia finished her rant, Dylan ran away, burying his face in his arm. I ran after him.

He ran into the castle and ran up the stairs. He found a corner on one of the less-used stair platforms and began to cry. As I came to the stairs that led to his platform, the stairs shifted and there was no way for me to get to him.

"Drats." I thought for a moment, then had an idea. I used the levitation spell on myself and began to float towards him. I grabbed the railing on the platform, and the spell stopped. I dangled from the railing and struggled to get a hold on the thin rim of the platform.

"Get out of here before you hurt yourself." Dylan saw me hanging onto the railing.

I smiled at him. "If I could, don't you think I would? Now help me up."

He ran over to me and pulled me over the rail. He fell backwards and I ended up falling on him. "Whoops, sorry!" I said.

"It's okay. Now, can you please _remove_ your elbow from my chest?"

"Oh!" I stood up and brushed out the wrinkles in my clothes. I helped Dylan up.

Once he was on his feet again, he went back to the corner and sat down. "Why did you come after me?"

I sat down next to him. "I wanted to make sure you were all right."

"That's it?"

"Why, is there something else I should be sorry for?"

"No, nothing other than my failed life."

"And how did you fail your life?"

"I have no friends other than my sister, if you hadn't noticed." He raised an eyebrow at me when he thought I didn't realize he had any friends.

"Well, we're friends, aren't we? And you've still got the rest of your life ahead of you. You'll make plenty more friends by the end of the year. Even one friend can be considered plenty, as long as you get along."

"I guess you're right."

"And when am I not?"

"Well, you were- wait, um, there was that- uh, hmm, maybe you are always right."

"Don't underestimate me."

Dylan nodded. "Of course not," he said, laughing.

"Now let's go. We have to leave anyway."

I stood up and began to walk up the stairs; they had just moved to connect to our platform. Dylan followed after me and we headed up to our common rooms.

Before we split apart to go to our different common rooms, I made a deal with Dylan. "Okay, I'll continue helping you with all your spells, potions, and anything else you need help on, as long as you try to be nicer to my friends. Deal?"

He thought for a moment. "Okay, deal. I'll at least _try_."

"Good." Then we split paths to our own rooms.

I went back downstairs to the barrels that led to the Hufflepuff common room and tapped the correct rhythm and barrels. The barrels shifted to the side, revealing a short tunnel and I stepped inside the room. I found Sofia, Hazel, and a few other students sitting around on the couches, in the chairs, and on the floor around the brick fireplace that was built into the wall. Sofia sat on a couch with Hazel, and she held a bag of ice to her head where she was hit by the Bludger.

"Where have you been? We've been looking everywhere for you," Sofia asked.

I shrugged. "Places."

Hazel eyed me impatiently. "What do you mean by _'places'?_"

"Oh, it's nothing important."

Sofia and Hazel still stared at me. "Well, okay. If you say it's not important," Sofia said.

I smiled at them. I went into my room and found Shade. I took out some of my candy from Halloween, which was about two weeks ago, and tried to find something he would like. When I first gave him some ice mice and sugar mice, he thought they had real mice in it. When he bit into the ice mice, he couldn't stop chattering and squeaking for a while. When I gave him the sugar mice, he immediately spit it out, since he doesn't like things that are too sweet. I ended up just giving him a chocolate frog and a cauldron cake. He licked the chocolate and bit into the cake.

I looked through the rest of the candy, and took out all the other chocolate frogs. I ate one and looked at the card. Mirabella Plunket. I stuffed the card in a box where I held the rest of my cards in and shoved it under my bed. I thought of the new friend I had just made; one I never expected to be able to call a friend at all.


	6. Chapter 3: Dylan

Chapter 3

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_So long. So lazy. Next chapter. That's it._

_Oh, If you're wondering how I got Olivia's handwriting in that font, i just copied and pasted from LibreOffice._

_Remember to follow, favorite, and review!_

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We were in the middle of a Charms class. I started falling asleep, scribbling down anything I heard that seemed useful on a piece of parchment. My hand wrote the words lazily, leaving blotches of ink on my paper.

"Sofia, what spell is used to levitate an item?" Professor Flitwick asked. I looked at Sofia, who was on the other side of my sister, looking down at the teacher (since he was very short), a confused look on her face. I assumed she wasn't paying attention.

Serenity quickly whispered the answer to Sofia, and she ended up getting it correct. I looked at Serenity's notes, which were at least three times as long as mine. She was already on her second roll of parchment, and she was still writing some more.

Professor Flitwick explained how to do the levitation spell, _wingaurdium leviosa_, and we were put into groups of two. Olivia was paired with some friend new she made named Satin Sans who was from our house, Sofia was with Hazel, and I got Serenity.

Each pair got a feather to try to levitate, and took turns trying the spell. I took the feather first, and set it in front of me. Serenity stared at the feather from my right side.

"_Wingaurdium leviosa!_" I said, pointing my wand at the feather. Nothing happened, and I heard some people sniggering under their breath about me. Of course, I heard every word they said, which made me feel worse. I felt the heat rise to my face as I blushed. I began to get really angry, about to yell and lash out on the people insulting me.

Serenity examined the feather on the table and told me, "Don't listen to them. They probably make their feather go lower to the ground instead." This actually made me smile a little. "When you say the spell, try flicking your wrist. The way you pronounced it was just right," she said. I tried again.

"_Wingaurdium leviosa!_" I yelled again, flicking my wrist as I said it. The feather began to float up until it reached the ceiling. I looked up at it in awe, since I never really expected it to work. I continued to stare up at my feather, until I felt someone tapping me on the shoulder. When I looked over my shoulder, I found Serenity standing there.

"Um," she said, "excuse me. But I believe a _thank you_ is in order?" I thought she was joking, but she wasn't. She was serious. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that the feather had landed back on the table. I took one last glance at it, and turned my attention back to Serenity. I really didn't want to thank her. I really don't like thanking anyone.

Finally, I gave in. "Fine, thank you," I said in a grumpy tone. Serenity smiled and said, "Much better!" before taking the feather and going to the other end of the table. I followed her, curious to see what her feather would do. I wasn't surprised when her feather floated up like mine had, considering that she was the one who helped me.

Later that week, Olivia and I had the Quidditch tryouts. We both did amazing, and won the spots for the Beaters on the team. It was one of the things I was actually good at. A few more weeks later, we had the first Quidditch match of the year; Hufflepuff vs. Ravenclaw. I found myself torn between who to root for. I wanted Hufflepuff to win since Olivia's friends were from that house. I wanted Ravenclaw to win, well, simply because I don't like Sofia, and she was the Hufflepuff Seeker. Hufflepuff ended up winning, since Sofia had caught the Snitch only a small amount of time after the game started, and the Ravenclaw Seeker hadn't even seen the Snitch.

That was the most exciting thing to happen in a while. Most of the following weeks felt more or less the same, like a rerun of a tv episode. The days slowly passed by, the fun new life I was excited for becoming quite boring. The thing that I _was_ looking forward to was Halloween.

I had woken up early and gathered up all the candy on my nightstand. I received tons of candy from strangers that I didn't even know. I had a lot of stuff from a bunch of girls from all four houses, though I didn't know why. I only knew a few people here.

I went into the common room, which had a few people exchanging candy, and sat on the couch. As time went by, more and more students came out, trading and eating candy with each other. Soon, Olivia had too come out, holding a big sack of candy, giving different things out to the other students. She gave Satin a large candy bar, who quickly devoured it in a matter of minutes. I always saw her munching on candy in class, having numbers of cauldron cakes, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, chocolate frogs, pieces of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, and much more taken away by the teachers.

When Olivia came over next to me, I asked, "Where did you get all this candy?"

Olivia rolled her eyes and answered, "I ordered it from Honydukes! Where else? Now open up!" She shoved a blood flavoured lollipop (my favourite candy since I was bitten) into my mouth, nearly choking me with it. It hit the back of my throat, making my mouth feel sore. Then she dropped a large orange box with a black ribbon tied into a bow onto my lap. It had a small card on the ribbon, which held the box shut.

"What's this for?"

"You need to give it to Serenity," Olivia said, "for helping you in Charms. They're pumpkin pasties."

I read the card on it and frowned. "Why did you write, '_Sorry about Dylan_,' on it? What's so bad about me?"

"Well," Olivia began, "You have anger issues, you don't like girls, you're socially awkward, you have no friends, you're really rude, you don't like listening to people, you're not that smart, and-"

"Okay! I get it."

"Olivia smiled mischievously. "But I'm just getting started! Wait here; I'll go get my list." She went to her room. I yelled after her, "I know you're joking!" but she soon came out with a yard long piece of parchment. There was room at the bottom to add more writing.

She shoved the list in my face. I read the title, and it said:

Bad Things About Dylan Mason

"Wow, thanks," I said sarcastically, rolling up the parchment. As I rolled it up, I saw that Olivia had written, 'He talks a lot'.

Olivia smiled and said, "You're welcome!" I knew that she knew I was being sarcastic, but she always teased me like that. I didn't like it when she did that.

When it was time for breakfast, we all went upstairs. I stayed a little behind, wandering around the stairs and lower floors for Serenity, holding the box of pumpkin pasties in my hand. I wanted to give it to her in private, so people wouldn't get the wrong idea if they saw me giving her candy in a nicely wrapped box.

As I walked through the halls, I ran into someone. I turned around to see Serenity, a bit of fear in her face. I gave her the box of candy, and she took it with surprise. She undid the bow, and peeked inside. She still looked nervous, as if the candy would explode any minute.

She stared up at me and asked, "Um, you didn't poison these or anything, did you?"

I felt offended. "No!" I said, but then I felt a bit guilty as I remembered an idea I had a while ago. "But," I began, "to be honest, I was considering on doing that to Sofia. But anyway, Olivia made me get it for you as a thank you for helping me with my spells."

She read the card on the box, then said, "Non-magical candy?"

I shrugged and said, "Would you rather we get you jelly slugs or cockroach clusters?"

"Point taken," Serenity said, disgust in her voice.

We walked to the Dining Room together, and it seemed a little weird for me to be going anywhere alone with someone other that Olivia or my parents. It made it even weirder seeing as to that other person was a girl. I was a bit relieved when we had to separate to our different tables. I went to sit with Olivia and Satin.

At breakfast, everything seemed pretty normal. The day went on like any other, except for at the Halloween feast. My main focus was the food, but the live flying bats at the ceiling were a close second.

As I ate dinner, I rushed in eating, nearly choking on my food dozens of times. I just wanted to get to the candy. I took lots of different sweets, ripping open the wrappers and stuffing the contents into my wide mouth. At one point, I heard a girl scream, and saw Peeves the Poltergeist laughing his head off. Well, not literally. The only ghost here without a head is Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost. Actually, his head isn't completely off; it hangs onto his body by a thin piece of skin at his neck. So he's not really headless, but you get the point. I guess Olivia was right; I do talk a lot.

In the middle of November, the Slytherins had our first Quidditch match against the Hufflepuffs. As I headed for the field with Olivia, Hazel, and Sofia, Serenity came up to us. She wished Olivia, Sofia, and Hazel all good luck before they ran ahead of me. Then she wished me good luck to. It surprised me, and left me standing there in shock.

"But I'm on the opposing team," I said.

"Still," she said, "I want you to do well, too. Now I have to go before the stands get too crowded. Bye!" She ran off, her black and yellow scarf flowing in the wind, along with her long hair.

As I headed for the Quidditch Pitch, I saw Olivia looking really nervous. For me, I never felt nervous about things like this. I just couldn't wait to get started.

When the whistle blew and we started the game, I flew back and forth with Olivia, each of us agreeing to be in charge of one Bludger. I whacked mine with my club, easily sending it in whatever direction I wanted. I took a quick glance at Olivia, seeing her sweat and pant with each thwack. I never realized how exhausting this could be without super strength to help.

Near the end of the game, I saw Sofia chasing after the Snitch, with our Seeker right behind her. Sofia reached out her hand, victory nearly in her grasp. I knew that I couldn't let us lose our first game, so the next time my Bludger came at a teammate, I whacked it towards Sofia, hitting her in the head.

She was knocked off her broom, hitting the hard ground. Our Seeker grabbed the Snitch and the Slytherins in the stands erupted into applause, excitement, and happy screams. I landed on the ground just as my teammates came over to me and lifted me into the air.

"YES!" I screamed. It was probably the best thing to happen to me since, well, it was the only good thing that ever happened to me. I looked around for Olivia, but my happiness faded when I saw her in the crowd around Sofia, checking if she was okay.

The team let me down, and I walked away, both happy that I was the reason we won, and unset because my own sister chose her friend's small injury over her brother's first victory. I didn't even hit her that hard with a Bludger, yet everyone gathered around her as if she was dying. I suddenly heard a loud stomping coming towards me and turned around to see Sofia coming to me from at least ten feet away. When she reached me, she started yelling.

"You know, you should at least say sorry!" she exclaimed.

I had an evil grin on my face as I said, "Why would I do that?"

"Because you hit the Bludger so hard! I could've gotten seriously injured!" she screamed in my face. I narrowed my eyes.

"That was the point."

"Why would you do something like that?!"

I thought for a second, and remembered the main reason why I hated Sofia. "For revenge."

Sofia looked confused. "Revenge for what?!"

Suddenly, I just exploded. "For stealing my sister away from me!" I yelled at her, I began to go into vampire mode. It happens when I get really upset or mad, I sometimes I lose control. I started to lose my mind, ways to murder Sofia popping into my mind. Then I began to wonder how her blood might taste if I did it.

"I didn't steal your sister from you!" she yelled at me, pure hatred in her voice, "She's still your sister! I'm just her friend! You need to let her have her own friends! Just because you are a freak with no friends doesn't mean she is like you. You're just a sad excuse, desperate for someone to like you, and your sister is the only one who will!"

At that I went immediately back to normal. That was when I broke into a million pieces. Not for real, but I felt like it. I heard the truth, as if the universe just pushed me into a never ending hole of doom. I didn't even care about anything anymore; I just wanted to go and die in a hole alone, hoping my misery would end. But that wasn't an option, and I just walked away from Sofia, tears gathering in my eyes.

Then I went slowly back to mad. I remembered a jinx spell Serenity taught me, and I began to say the incantation to myself. I pointed my wand at Sofia, but before it hit her, Olivia used the counter jinx spell and blocked my attack. She came running towards me, and started yelling at me. More criticizing came from her. When she finished, I ran. I ran in the castle.

I didn't pay attention to anything around me, but I ran up the steps of the moving staircases. I went up a staircase that no one ever really used, and sat down on the corner of the platform. I wrapped my arms around my legs, and cried. It was probably the first time I had cried in years. Then I heard something hit the railing of the platform and looked up.

Serenity was hanging from the rail, struggling to pull herself up. The stairs that I had used had apparently moved, forcing Serenity to use the levitation spell to reach me.

"Get out of here before you hurt yourself," I said, sniffing.

Serenity smiled at me, and said, "If I could, don't you think I would? Now help me up."

I ran over to her, grabbing her arm and pulling her over the rail. I fell over, landing on the floor with Serenity on top of me. Her elbow jabbed into my chest, her other one digging into my ribs. Her hair fell around her face, and I gathered all around me.

"Whoops," she said, starting to get up, "sorry!"

"It's okay. Now, can you please remove your elbow from my chest?" I asked.

"Oh!" she said, as she stood up. She grabbed my hand to help me up, too. Once I was up, I went back to the corner and sat down.

"Why did you come after me?" I asked with curiosity.

Serenity came over and sat down right next to me, and turned to me. We were face to face, and I could feel her breath as she said, "I wanted to make sure you were all right."

"That's it?"

"Why, is there something else I should be sorry for?"

I frowned and said, "No, nothing other than my failed life."

"And how did you fail your life?"

I raised an eyebrow and gave her a funny look as I said, "I have no friends other than my sister, if you hadn't noticed."

"Well, we're friends, aren't we? And you've still got the rest of your life ahead of you. You'll make plenty more friends by the end of the year. Even one friend can be considered plenty, as long as you get along." Her saying this made me feel better. I actually have a friend, I thought. And a really pretty one at that. Smart, too.

"I guess you're right."

"And when am I not?"

I started to think. She did have a point there. "Well, you were- wait, um, there was that- uh, hmm, maybe you are always right."

"Don't underestimate me."

I laughed and nodded. "Of course not."

"Now let's go. We have to leave anyway," she said. Though I really didn't want to leave, I knew I had to. It was nice being here with just Serenity. She was actually nicer to me than Olivia. I didn't want her to go; I wanted to stay here, in this moment, forever. I wanted to stay with her forever, because she actually made me feel happier, not worse. Unlike everyone else in my life.

Before we part ways, Serenity said, "Okay, I'll continue helping you with all your spells, potions, and anything else you need help on, as long as you try to be nicer to my friends. Deal?"

I pretended to think about my choice, but I already knew my answer. "Okay," I said, "deal. I'll at least try."

I went to the dungeons to the common room entrance. I said the password and entered it. The Slytherins were all celebrating our victory, congratulating me as I walked through. I asked one of them if Olivia was up, but they said she already went to bed. I decided to go to sleep, too. I didn't feel like celebrating. At least with other people.

When I lifted the covers and pulled the blankets over me, I still had one thought lingering onto my mind. I have a friend.


End file.
